For those that want a small sample of the content of the book, below is an excerpt, I suggest you read it while listening to this music.

Chaz looked longingly at his bride. “Well, since our day has begun, I think we should get dressed.”
Naomi nodded and hurried to her room. Aware that Chaz had followed her, she placed her hand on the doorknob and turned toward him. “I am glad you pay attention to all the little things in my life.” She opened the bedroom door.
Chaz placed his hand on the doorjamb and drew her close. He drank in her early morning rumpled beauty and asked, “So, you are not mad at me?”
“There is nothing to be mad about.” Ducking under his arm, she crossed the threshold. While closing the door, she smiled at him. “If we hurry we will have more time to spend together.”
Hearing the eagerness in her words, Chaz grinned and scratched his stubble. “That is what I was thinking.” He headed to the master suite, intent on making this day the best day yet for the two of them.
While Chaz wondered how they should spend the day, Naomi dressed and tidied up the parlor. When he entered the room, she asked, “Have you been reading Madre Vieda’s journal?”
Surprised to discover that, though she had fainted, and spent time in bed, Naomi knew his every move, Chaz exclaimed, “Va a ser una madre maravillosa!”
“I know you believe I will be a wonderful mother, but flattery will never get you out of trouble!” She held up the journal. “Were you reading this journal again?”
He grimaced. “I was trying to find out why everything associated with her and her journal affects you. Do you understand what I am saying?”
“Sí, absolument! At this point, I think we are both concerned!”
Chaz breathed a sigh of relief. “Are you saying that I am absolutely right to make me feel better?”
“I said what I did because it is the truth.” Aware that when she played the piano, Madre Vieda was with her, and believing within that experience was the answer, Naomi hurried to set it up. She sat down, and began to play. Why, I am myself again, she thought as she noticed the little mistakes she always made that had not occurred when her mentor and she were enmeshed.
“You seem yourself again,” Chaz said as he watched her play.
“I think you are right.”
He bent down and whispered in her ear, “You are back, and you are mine.”
As she turned to look at him, she stopped playing. “Chaz, you are right! I am myself again!”
He kissed her. “Now tell me, my amorcita, my sweetheart, what are you playing?”
“A piece from the New World Symphony that Dvořák wrote when he came to the United States. I love its tenor and history.”
“How do you know about such things?”
“I heard this piece often because Madre Vieda loved to play her old record of it.”
He watched Naomi’s hands as she tried to evoke the unique nuances of the music.
“Why did she like it?”
“Perhaps because, like I do when I am with you, the music made her feel…”
“Safe.”
She nodded. “Thank you for doing what you knew I would hate, to show me how much you care for and about me cariño, my beloved.”
“No fue nada.”
“Your nothing is everything to me, Chaz.”
He sat down beside her on the piano bench, and she felt as if they were reliving that sweet moment before everyone, even Chaz, had turned away from her. Pushing that horrid memory away, she nodded to the ‘listening chair’. “She loved that a foreign composer came here to teach music and told his students to use American folk tunes as the basis for their compositions.”
She stopped playing, for he had not moved. “It is best that you stopped,” he said. “For you to continue before I had time to tell you that for me this is a bittersweet moment, which brings back both our joy as well as the painful memories I inflicted upon you, needed to be said, and forgiveness from you sought.”
Her hand caressed his as she nodded and whispered, “Forgiveness was given before I reaffirmed my wedding vows.”
“Thank you. Now I am able to hear what you were saying.”
“I will continue when you sit as I directed because—”
“Because that is where the music sound best…is that not so?”
“You know it is.” He sat in the chair, nodded, and Naomi continued, “Dvořák believed American music should reflect what he called ‘Negro melodies’. Madre Vieda quoted him saying, ‘They are the folk songs of America, and your composers must turn to them’. To prove his point, Dvorák wrote the New World Symphony using songs like ‘Oh Susanna’ and many others. I think his lyrical refrains sound as new today as they must have to his students when this symphony was first performed at Carnegie Hall in December of 1893.”
“I am glad to have all of you here with me again.”
Naomi nodded. “I know I am back from wherever I went. Whatever happens, do not let me go away from you ever again.”
“What was it like for you to be here…but not altogether here?”
Stopping abruptly, Naomi focused on some distant place for a second, and then returned. “How did you know that was happening?”
“You were somehow removed. It felt as if something stood between us.”
“Now that I am back, I know that I was gone. What was here with you was just a part of me. Madre Vieda had a portion of my heart and would not release it until you freed me.”
“Since this began when you started reading Madre Vieda’s journal, you are not to read her journal unless I am here. Do you understand?”
“I do…but I…I must tell you that looking back at what happened to me, I know I must go where the music leads.”
“Naomi, what music…What do you mean?”
“I know it is hard to understand, but for me, each of you has a melody, a refrain within me. Although I love you, I have heard Madre Vieda’s music for half of my life. When that gentle song calls me, I must answer.”
“And me? Why is it that my song does not pull you to me no matter what you hear?”
“Your song is like music coming from another room. I hear it and want to run toward it. Something stops me, and I do not understand why.”
“Naomi, I had to fight against myself, my beliefs, and even my idea of how a man should be treated by his wife before I could come back to you! Now, you need to fight this thing so our love will endure, and we will grow old together!”
“Yes, I know you are right! Bear with me, mi querido…my beloved. I did not mean to leave you this way. I will fight for us even against the pull of Madre Vieda.”
“Good. Since music is the key, I fight fire with…melodies of love,” Chaz said as he hurried to the record player and returned as the music and words of Johnny Mathis swirled around them. Taking her hand, Naomi stood, and Chaz pulled her close. They danced to ‘Until the Twelfth of Never’ as they had when he first gifted his bride the song and taught her how to dance. They focused on the conformity of their steps and the words of the song that made their hearts beat as one a few weeks ago.
Humming along with the song, Chaz realized he had to share his heart, and said, “When I met you, Madre Vieda had become but a distant memory.”
Her heart in her eyes, Naomi looked at him. “Yes. That is true.”
Drinking her in, he held her tight. “One cannot learn about marriage from someone who has not been married.”
“When I think of my time with her and compare it with my time and my love for you, the word that best describes my feeling is intermezzo.”
“If you want me to understand what you are saying, speak to me in words I understand!”
“Forgive me!” Naomi exclaimed. She blushed scarlet, prayed silently for God’s help, and explained, “Intermezzo is a musical term which means ‘in the meantime’. It is a little something played between major themes to fill up space and allow the listener to take in the music without being overwhelmed.”

***

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Paula Rose Michelson is not only an author but also a mother of two married daughters, and the grandmother of seven. She authored the Casa de Naomi Series. And today, February 1, 2014 The Naomi Chronicles, Book One, Beginning Anew will release on Amazon.

In 1988, she founded LAMB Ministries which teaches women recovering from trauma and abuse.

While awaiting the copyright for the first LAMB recovery book titled, “Why Did We Become Angry?” She wrote a series of politically incorrect articles that will be published under the title, “The Purple Pitch Seduction of America.” These will release in 2014.

Hi Paula, I have a few short questions for you.

How did you come up with the title?

Since Naomi and Chaz are picking up the tattered pieces of their lives, the title “Beginning Anew” spoke itself into my heart. Adding “The Naomi Chronicles” lets people who read the two “Casa de Naomi” books know that this is a continuation of that story. And of course adding “Book One” was necessary so shoppers would know which book followed which.

Was it hard to keep to your outline?

Once Naomi began telling me her story there was no need of an outline. The hardest thing I had to do was trust her and know she knew her story best and could tell it better than I ever could.

How did you feel after finishing the draft?

I finished the rough draft in 2009 and rejoiced! Then aware that Naomi had more to share, I continued writing.

Are you writing more Naomi books?

Yes! Before the first Naomi book was published I had written the draft for five of the six books that comprise my heroines’ faith journey. The titles of the other Naomi books are: Commitment for Two, Sorrow Season, and Triumphant Joy. I plan to publish one book a year.

Thank you Paula. I’m sure the readers will be glad to know there’s more books to come. If you are curious to find out more about this author, she can be found online on:

I loved what you did for the Beginning Anew release and giveaway! Everything, down to Dvořák’s New World Symphony was such a blessing that I’m at a loss for words, which, I believe seldom happens to us writers.